Back to Our Reality

TWO

N/A: Hi all! So here is chapter two. It has been a rather difficult chapter to write considering it is set pretty much immediately after the first one. I'm hoping that things should start to pick up a bit in the next chapter, but it rather depends on where it takes me. I have a detailed plan for the second half of the story, but this first half is proving rather difficult to plan in detail. The possibilities are fairly open so new ideas keep replacing old ones and so on and so forth. I hope it's alright though and I apologise for any mistakes made; they do happen occasionally as this is unbeta'd.

Anyway, allons-y
Enjoy!
(and as usual, I own nothing. Doctor Who and it's characters belong to the BBC)

.......

A knock on the door brought the Doctor out of his trance. He hadn't been particularly focused on anything since Rose had left for dinner and in some respects he welcomed the quiet that he had been presented with. In other respects, however, he wished that Rose was still here with him. He was aware that it was probably hard for her to know what to say around him right now and he was thankful that Rose understood. Despite that, he still wanted her here; even if neither of them said a word to each other, at least he wouldn't feel as along with her around.

The knocking came again and the Doctor pushed himself off the bed to go open the door.

On the other side of the door stood Rose, holding out plate of food in one hand and a glass of what the Doctor assumed was lemonade in the other.

The Doctor took in the scene in front of him, looking from Rose to the food and drink and back again. His expression was one of confusion; his left brow ever-so-slightly raised. Rose smiled a little when she took note of the Doctor's expression.

"It's for you." She said. "You didn't come down for dinner so I decided to bring you up something in case you were hungry."

Despite himself, the Doctor couldn't help but smile at Rose. She really did care about him and he knew she was worried. He had been so wrapped up in his own world for a while now that he hadn't really considered how Rose was feeling about all this. Was she still annoyed with him for sending her away? The way she looked at him didn't point to any indications that that might be the case, but maybe she was just pushing her real feelings away for his sake?

"Thank you." He replied, taking the plate and glass from her. "You okay?" The Doctor asked her a moment later. It was a question he probably should have asked her earlier, but now was as good a time as any.

"I'm okay, don't worry about me." Came her reply. "I'm more worried about you."

"Oh, I'm alright." Was his obvious reply. It was a lie, of course, and both of them knew it.

Rose was about to challenge the Doctor's response and try to get him to open up a little more, nit she stopped herself. There was a look in the Doctor's eyes that she had seen on a number of occasions during the time that she had known him. It was the look that said not to push the matter any further and that he wasn't ready to talk about this just yet. She had learnt rather quickly that pushing the Doctor was not the right thing to do if he did not want to talk. And she respected that. Just like he respected her when she didn't want to talk.

Rose just hoped that the Doctor would open up about his current situation sooner rather than later.

"You can come in if you like; you don't have to stand there." The Doctor told her, changing the subject.

"No, I'd better be going to bed. It's been a long day." Rose replied, pointing to the door to her bedroom across the hall. "I just wanted to bring you up some food so you didn't forget to eat."